Dennis Marstall will be Wichita’s next city manager.
The City Council approved a contract with the South Carolina county administrator on Tuesday, agreeing to a $298,000 salary and a Dec. 31 start date.
“I’m looking forward to new leadership in 2026,” Mayor Lily Wu said.
Since 2021, Marstall has served as the county administrator for Lancaster County, South Carolina. The county is part of the greater Charlotte, North Carolina, metropolitan area.
Marstall will take over for Bob Layton, Wichita’s current city manager. Layton spent nearly 17 years guiding the city and announced earlier this year that he would retire by January.
Finding Layton’s successor has been an eight-month process that in the past few weeks has grown contentious.
Council members Brandon Johnson and Mike Hoheisel were the lone no votes on beginning negotiations with Marstall last week and on signing a contract with Marstall on Tuesday.
Last week, Johnson said his reservations were “more about the process than the specific finalists.”
He hinted at the possibility that some elected officials improperly influenced the candidate selection committee and that candidate scoring favored “one group versus the others.”
Johnson called for the scoring documents the council reviewed to be released to the public. KMUW requested those documents from Wichita city staff but has yet to receive them.
Hoheisel and Johnson restated their concerns on Tuesday before motioning to “rescind the offer and begin the process over again.” Their motion failed in a vote of 2-5.
“Dennis seems like a fine individual,” Hoheisel said. “He seems like a qualified individual. And if he’s hired, I do plan on working with him and enjoying his company as much as I can.
“I just wish that the process was cleaner and I had more faith in the process as a whole,” Hoheisel said.
Some members of the public joined Johnson and Hoheisel in expressing concerns about the hiring process.
Esau Freeman, business representative for the local Service Employees’ International Union, told the council that he had no problem with the contract for Marstall, but he doubted the process by which Marstall was selected.
Layton, the current city manager, announced his retirement in April. City human resources staff advised the council to hire a consultant to help find his replacement. In August, the city hired Sacramento-based consultant CPS HR in a $30,000 contract.
The firm helped advertise the job posting and reviewed 89 applicants. It presented a group of 17 applicants to a city selection committee. The committee, made up of local business people and HR professionals, then presented Marstall and two other candidates to the city council as finalists.
The other two finalists were Mark Freitag, a former Colorado city manager, and Donte Martin, Wichita’s assistant city manager.
All three candidates participated in stakeholder interviews in mid-November, including a public forum. Martin withdrew his candidacy just days after the forum, as the city council prepared to make its candidate selection. Martin did not provide a specific reason for his decision.
Freeman told the council that he participated in some of the interviews and felt the presenter from CPS HR made “disparaging comments” about Freitag being “long-winded.” However, Freeman said he was most concerned by Martin’s withdrawal.
“I have an extreme concern for what would make a 25-year employee drop out from that job search, knowing full well that that person was the desired candidate,” Freeman said. “Knowing that that person has relationships and roots in the community.”
Wu reiterated on Tuesday that she believed that the council received “three very qualified candidates” and that Marstall represented “the most qualified candidate from the pool.”
Marstall grew up in Manhattan, Kansas, and served as the city's assistant city manager from 2019 to 2021. He also spent time as the vice president of community investment and impact for United Way of Central Carolinas.
Under the contract approved Tuesday, Wichita will cover the cost of relocating Marstall and his family from South Carolina to Kansas.
His contract also includes a $6,600 annual car allowance, a $600 annual phone allowance and a contribution to Marstall’s retirement fund – up to 10 percent of his salary each year.
